Chanco students turns campus into ‘a resort’ in protest

It was unplanned yet ‘expected’ when Chancellor College students went ahead to turn the campus into an arena of entertainment as a diplomatic way of expressing their dissatisfaction and frustration at the authorities’ decision to bar them from staging their planned vigil on Thursday.

Clad in the ‘traditional’ red attire, the students immediately mushroomed an open area near the main Library known as “Pa Quad” where they were engaged in a mass gig [or dancing] coupled with various sporting activities and games.

Some students could even be seen lying on their respective mattresses which they had brought to this new ‘holiday resort’.

This unplanned event started around noon, immediately after the students had withdrawn from the ‘arc’ [near the Great Hall where they had assembled] and it extended till late night. Who could blame them for all this?

Chilling: Chanco students on campus. Photo: Makhumbo Munthali

Here were a crop of people, according to the Students Union of Chancellor College [SUCC] spokesperson Austin Misoya, who in the process of being denied their right to education and their freedom to express their grievances had resolved to mere idling and had hence no choice but to find solace in such entertainment.

It is along these lines that the event was expected.

“The event you see here is not just about fun. We as students are at pains with the status quo. The main reason we are doing this is to show the world that we are completely doing nothing here on Campus,” lamented Misoya.

While concurring with Misoya, SUCC President Patrick Phiri further maintained that this event was an “expression of protest” at the decision of the authorities to stop them from exercising their constitutional right.

Meanwhile, the students are scheduled to hold this postponed vigil on 22nd August 2011.

According to SUCC Speaker Austin Misoya everything, including the documents from the officer in charge of Zomba Police Station, authorizing the occurrence of the event are in place.